Substitute Ryan Colclough grabbed his first senior goal but Crewe Alexandra were finally beaten by a Brett Pitman hat-trick in a 3-1 defeat at Bournemouth.
Pitman netted his first from the spot on eight minutes after Adam Dugdale was penalised for challenging Marc Pugh. He then added another from Josh McQuoid’s cross to extend the lead midway through the second-half.
But within nine minutes Colclough suddenly brought the visitors back into the game, only for Pitman to convert his second penalty of the afternoon before the end.
Crewe earlier gave a first full start at left-back to Jon Guthrie in the absence of Matt Tootle and Gregor Roberson, although they soon found themselves trailing courtesy of Pitman sending Steve Phillips the wrong way from the spot.
Alex replied with Max Clayton heading a Byron Moore cross straight at Shwan Jalal, while Brad Inman, Mathias Pogba and skipper Luke Murphy were each wide of the target. McQuoid and Pitman both headed over at the opposite end.
However, the Cherries should really have doubled their lead ahead of the interval when Lewis Grabban rounded Phillips but could only finish into the side-netting.
Goalscorer Pitman was twice wide upon the restart and then headed straight at Phillips, while the on loan Inman lacked sufficient direction as the visitors replied.
Then after keeper Phillips had blocked well to deny the threat of Grabban, his colleague McQuoid stole possession from full debutant Guthrie and set-up Pitman for an easy second goal.
Pitman might have added another when sending a further chance directly at Phillips, whose parry then allowed Harry Artel to head beyond an inviting net after Colclough had already screwed wide for the visitors.
But Colclough soon turned in Pogba’s cross at the far post to threaten a late revival, until substitute Wes Fogden went down in the area under the challenge of Abdul Osman and Pitman duly completed his hat-trick from the penalty spot.
Bournemouth: Jalal, Francis, Cook, Seaborne, Elphick, Pugh, Arter, McQuoid (Fogden 80), O’Kane, Grabban (Tubbs 88), Pitman (Hughes 83)
subs (unused): Allsopp, Partington, McDermott, Fletcher
Goals: Pitman (pen 8, 67, pen 82)
Crewe Alexandra: Phillips, Mellor, Davis, Dugdale, Guthrie, Murphy, Osman, Inman (Colclough 63), M. Clayton (Leitch-Smith 63), Pogba, Moore
subs (unused): Garratt, Ellis, Turton, Ray, West
Goals: Colclough (76)
Ref: Williamson
Att: 8,628
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